


Pulled From Its Clutches

by Wallwalker



Series: HSO Bonus Round-Up [6]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Body Horror, F/M, Horror, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-25
Updated: 2012-06-25
Packaged: 2017-11-08 13:38:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/443758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose has killed a lot of those abominations. She rarely gets the chance to save their victims.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pulled From Its Clutches

Rose has spent a lot of time hunting down and destroying these horrible alien abominations, but she's never seen anything like this before.

It's not the massive tentacles that expand to fill the entire room, curling and twitching and clutching at the walls around them. It's not the crackle of unnatural energy that fills the air every few seconds. It's not even the horrible sound of its breathing, the way that it seems to rasp and pulse and moan in agony.

No. What really terrifies her, once she looks closely, is that she can still _see_ the creature it's sucking the mind from. It's a young troll - barely older than she is, if she had to guess - curled up in a ball. She can see the anguish plain on his face, what she can see of it, through the short tentacles , and the shorter tentacles that extend from his body are clenched around him protectively. She can see where the alien interfacing has grown into his skin, a long, ropey cord of flesh.

The voice lets out a raspy laugh. "You did it," it said, lisping slightly. "You found me."

"Yes," she says, staring up at his trembling form. "I did. So now what do we do?"

"Well, for starters, you could kill me." She can hear the self-loathing in his voice, and it's killing her. "That's what you do, right? You could kill me and end all of this."

Yes. She could end this. All she'd have to do is lift her dark-matter phaser and fire, strike the young troll in the center. He'd be dead, and the rest of this would just wither away. She lifts her weapon - and hesitates.

"What are you waiting for?" the troll says. "Kill me! Fucking _do it!_ " The room around her starts to shake with his anger. " _Hurry!_ "

She nods, steeling herself, and lifts her gun again. She fires - and strikes the ropy nerve cord dead-center through the protective tentacles. The alien intelligence, writhing in pain, retracts, and she can hear the troll scream as the connection breaks, his psionics going completely insane. A psi-field expands around him - basic psychic protective instinct, she recognizes it easily enough. It was going to be a bastard to cross.

Rose holds her breath and darts in - it hurts like hell going into that field, and if it wasn't for her armor it would've thrown her across the room a dozen times over, but she grits her teeth and keeps running until she's reached the kid. The alien tendrils realize what she's done and try to dig back in, but she hits them again, and they leave him alone - and dive for her.

She has good defenses, but this thing is young and strong; it penetrates them like they were nothing, and suddenly her nervous system is set on fire as unfamiliar impulses wash through her system. She can't take much of this; she isn't a psychic or an Augment, her body just can't handle the energy impulses. She's going to die, she realizes, with a strange detachment - and she can't even say she's surprised. She should've listened to the kid, her mom, her brother - she should've _listened -_

The troll curses in her arms - his voice much smaller and reedier now, and rusty with disuse - and then she feels the shock of disconnection, the sudden weightlessness that comes with being thrown across a room by a psychic blast. She braces for the impact - only to find that there isn't one, that they land as if cushioned and slowly settle on the floor as the alien writhes in pain.

"Fuck," the troll slurs. "Why did you... why would you even..." Then he goes limp, unconscious, and Rose doesn't have time to do much more than hoist him on her shoulder and make a run for it.

\---

It's not until later that he recovers, on Rose's shuttle. She's spent some time by that point, trying to get his vitals up to normal; problem is that they're weird, though, and she can't tell what normal is actually supposed to be. They read almost as if he has redundant organs to go with his second set of horns - which makes no sense, even for a troll, but she has to call it like she reads it on the instruments. In particular his internal temperature is way hotter than what little information she has on trolls would indicate, even for his yellow blood, and she's starting to wonder if anything will keep it down, when his eyes finally roll open - you get a good look at them for the first time, one red and one blue, larger than you would've expected.

"Hey," he says, as if he's not quite sure where he is... and frankly, he probably wouldn't believe it at first anyway.

"Hello yourself," Rose answers. "How are you feeling?"

"Like death, slightly cooled off," he answers, still lisping. "You... grabbed me? Why did you do that? You should've killed me -"

Rose shook her head. "I've seen too many good people taken over by those abominations," she said, "and I thought I could still help you. That's enough reason, right?"

"Hmph," he answers eloquently, and struggles to sit up. His muscles are in an early stage of atrophy, and it doesn't go very well. Rose is going to have to get him some serious medical attention. "You're lucky I'm a master psychic. Thing almost got you."

"I realize this," she says. "And I appreciate your help."

He snorts. "Least I could do, right? You saved my life." He doesn't extend his hand, but Rose figures he can be forgive for that. "I'm Sollux, by the way. With an S at the beginning and an X at the end, since you probably can't tell, thanks to all of these fucking teeth." He lifts his hands enough to move his fingers, to trace out the letters. He's clearly a bit oversensitive about this, but Rose supposes he can be forgiven for it.

"Sollux," she repeats, and he manages a slight nod, so she figures she got it right. "Call me Rose."

"Heh," he says. "Thanks again, Rose."

"Glad I could help," she says, with a small smile. She's killed a lot of abominations. It's not often she gets to save one of their victims.

**Author's Note:**

> HSO Bonus Round 1, for pale Rose/Sollux, Horror + Science Fiction. Somehow this turned into horrorterror-hunter Rose saving a young psychic from one of the terrors.


End file.
